Police release body cam video of officer-involved shooting in West Valley City
By: West Valley City police released body cam video showing one of their officers shooting suspect 39-year-old Michael Halsey.
The shooting happened on Aug. 7 in the parking lot of the Indoor Swapmeet Market at 1400 West 3500 South.
The video is one minute long and when asked why only one minute of video was released, a police spokesperson said, “it's the only pertinent part of the video and the rest shows the officer sitting in his truck.”
The video provided by West Valley City shows what police said is a gun in Halsey's hand.
The shooting can be seen just two seconds into the start of the video clip.
West Valley police policy requires officers start their body cams when interacting with the public, but this officer didn't turn his on until after the shooting.
The police worn body cameras have a buffer which captures the 30 seconds prior to being turned on, so it barely captured the moment before the trigger was pulled.
During the buffer period, audio is not captured so any verbal exchange between the officer and suspect cannot be heard.
The police department sent out a prepared video statement saying they won't make any conclusions on if the officer broke policy until after the investigation is complete.
Leading up to this incident, 911 took a call from a witness of a separate shooting in the parking lot of the Carl’s Jr. at 3500 South Redwood Road just after 1 p.m.
Police tracked the suspect, Halsey, to the Indoor Swapmeet parking lot which is where he was shot.
Police said the officer who pulled the trigger was the only West Valley officer on scene, along with three officers from the Taylorsville Police Department.
When an officer involved critical incident protocol team is finished investigating, the district attorney will screen to determine if the use of deadly force by the officer was justified.
After being shot, Halsey was treated at the hospital but is now facing multiple charges.
Our previous reporting shows he has at least 60 prior arrests.